Amazing Facts about Sanchi Stupa: The Complete story and the "Places of Interest in Sanchi"

Prince Mahindra, son of Ashoka the Great, and his sister Sanghamitra were standing in saffron robes of a monk at Chaityagiri. His mother Devi had arranged their stay at Chaityagiri and they were about to start the long journey to Sri Lanka from Central India. This travel will change the history of both Sri Lanka and India. They travelled to Sri Lanka at the request of King Devanampiya Tissa to preach Dhamma. Gradually, the Dhamma Buddha spread in every corner of the island nation. Mahindra stayed at Chaityagiri monastery for one month before starting his long journey to Sri Lanka. That Chaityagiri is now known as the Sanchi Mahastupa. We will be exploring the complete history of Sanchi and will talk about the unknown stories related to this World Heritage Site. We will understand why Sanchi was built, what was its connection with Ashoka and how it declined and was lost. Sanchi in Central India houses an important group of Buddhist monuments built over 1400 years from the 3rd century BC to the 12th century AD. These Buddhist monuments are included in the World Heritage List of UNESCO. The Great Stupa of Sanchi was built by Ashoka, the Emperor of India, during the 3rd century BC. But why did he choose this site for the construction of his first and most magnificent stupa? The site was never visited by Buddha nor was it directly related to any of the significant philosophies of Buddhism. The answer to this question perhaps lies in the conspiracies that were taking place around 1000 km away in the city of Pataliputra, the capital of Magadh Empire. Emperor Bindusar, father of Ashoka, never wanted Ashoka to become the king. His choice for the throne was Prince Soshima, his eldest son. But Bindusar had got the hint of the aspirations of Prince Ashoka and to keep him away from the capital Pataliputra, he sent him to Takshila to subdue a rebellion. When Ashoka returned from Takshila, after successfully suppressing the rebellion, he was sent to Ujjain to suppress another unrest. Ujjain was the capital of Avanti and Ashoka was sent there as the governor of Ujjain. The journey to Ujjain would have taken more than a month and King Bindusar felt it was a safe distance between Ashoka and the throne. While on the way to Ujjain, Ashoka stopped in the city of Vidisha for some time. Vidisha was an important and prosperous town at that time. Here he met Devi, the daughter of a rich merchant known for her beauty. Ashoka married her at Sanchi and took her with him to Ujjain where in due course she gave birth to two children, a son named Mahindra and a daughter Sangmitra, both of whom later became famous Buddhist monks. Ashoka stayed in Ujjain for a long time but returned to Pataliputra when Bindusar became terminally ill. After the death of his father, Ashoka raised the war for the throne and killed his 100 brothers. But the most tragic death was reserved for Sushima who was burnt alive. His next years as king were turbulent and spent in wars and suppressions of rebellions. His most important war of Kalinga witnessed unparalleled bloodshed which changed his heart. He was filled with remorse for the massacre brought by him. After the victory of Kalinga, Ashoka turned towards Buddhism. He became an ardent follower of Buddha and played a key role in the spread of Dhamma. After the death of Buddha, eight stupas were built over the bodily relics of Buddha. Ashoka recovered the relics of Buddha from seven of the eight original stupas which were opened at his order. He redistributed the relics among many stupas, 84,000 in total according to Buddhist sources. At Sanchi too, we can infer that he built the great stupa over the bodily relics of Buddha. When he decided to build stupas, it was Sanchi, the place where he was married, that he built his first stupa in the 3rd century BC. The stupa built by him was a brick stupa, around half the size of the stupa as we see it today. It was constructed under the supervision of his wife Devi. He also created the monolithic pillar around which several stupas and other religious structures were added in the succeeding centuries. The Mauryan dynasty came to an end in 184 BC when Pushyamitra Sung killed the last Mauryan king Brihadrath. Pushyamitra was one of the most infamous adversaries of Buddhism and the stupa built by Ashoka in Sanchi suffered a lot of destruction during his rule. Agnimitra, the son and successor of Pushyamitra Sung, shifted his capital to Bidisha from Pataliputra in the 2nd century BC. He contributed significantly to the restoration and expansion of the Ashokan stupa. The stupa was virtually reconstructed during the 2nd century BC under the Sung kings. Not only did it expand visibly in size, its enlarged big dome now came to be encased in stone and surrounded by a stone railing. This doubled the size of the original stupa. The epigraphs on the railing reveal a large number of donations by the common people who supported the construction work here. After the Sunga dynasty, the region came under the control of Satavahana kings from Mantra who played a major role in the further expansion and beautification of the stupa. The four decorated torans or gateways that we see today were built by the Satavahanas. They employed the ivory artists from Bidisha to work on the stones. They made motifs based on the life of Buddha, Jataka stories and other major events related to Buddhism with fine artistry of jewelers. However, there are no Buddha images that could be traced to the Satavahana period as there was no practice of building Buddha images till that time. Instead, symbols like the wheel of law, the Bodhi tree, a stupa, footprints or a lotus have been used to represent Buddha. From the 2nd to 4th century AD, Sanchi was under the Kushans and subsequently passed on to the Gupta kings around 399 AD when Chandragupta II annexed Malwa. During their period, some of the finest temples were built and images of Buddha and Bodhisattvas were installed. In the 5th and 6th century AD, during the Gupta period, four Buddha images were installed in the great stupa, each facing the gateway. Shrines and monasteries were also constructed during the rule of Harsh, Pratihar and Parmar dynasty. Buddhism was in decline in the post-Gupta era from the 7th century AD and only a few buildings were added at Sanchi. From 1000 AD onwards, Muslim invasions began and the Buddhist art and architecture went into decline. Sanchi as a Buddhist centre suffered significantly and came to an end by the 12th century AD with the decline of Buddhism in India. It survived as a major Buddhist centre for the next two centuries but gradually with the disuse of the stupa and monasteries, it was taken over by forests and bushes and was lost for the next four centuries. Since the 14th century, Sanchi remained deserted and lost till 1818 when General Taylor discovered the site accidentally during one of his military expeditions. He found the stupa complex in a good state. General Alexander Cunningham and F.C. Massey explored, excavated and conserved the monument. But now, Sanchi had started to attract the attention of treasure hunters as the site was full of sculptures and carvings. Prime among those who were responsible for the systematic destruction of the site is Captain Johnson who in 1822 opened the great stupa from top to bottom on one side. This caused much damage and as a result, the western gateway collapsed. He also destroyed stupa 2 and stupa 3 partially. Large scale repairs were undertaken by Sir John Marshall, Director General of Archaeology. He also rescued the antiquities scattered in the area as well as those recovered from the excavations and established a museum at the site in 1919. Massive conservation efforts were undertaken after 1947 when India gained independence. Most of the monuments in the complex are built close to each other and are grouped on the hill within a walled enclosure measuring 400 into 200 meters. The circuit wall was built of stone in the 12th century AD. On reaching the top of the hill, the first thing that attracts attention is the beautiful approach to stupa 1 through a garden of flowering trees and shrubs. This huge stupa with four heavily ornamented gateways is the focal point of the site and all other monuments including stupas, temples and monasteries dating from the 3rd century BC to the 12th century AD were built around it. This is the largest and oldest of all the structures in Sachi. The great stupa or the Mahachatya with its beautifully carved gateways is unparalleled in beauty. With a diameter of over 36 meters and a height of over 16 meters, the stupa dome is crowned by a triple umbrella and is surrounded by a square railing or harmika. The base has a path to revolve around the stupa which can be approached by a double stairway. A second path at the ground level is approached by four richly carved gateways with each one consisting of square pillars crowned by lions, elephants and dwarfs. There are graceful figures of salabhanjikas and yakshas supporting the gateway pillars. Stupa 3 lying to the northeast of stupa 1 was built during the Sungha period in the 2nd century BC. It is much smaller in dimension crowned by a single stairway and gateway. Its diameter is 15 meters and its height is 8.1 meters. It was built with stone blocks in its core. In the relic chamber of this stupa, General Cunningham discovered the relics of Sariputta and Mogalana, two famous disciples of Buddha. These relics are now kept in the Chaitagiri monastery in the vicinity. Stupa 2 stands on the western slope of the hill. This was also built during the 2nd century BC. The ground railing is richly carved with gateways constructed during the 1st century BC. It yielded relics of as many as 10 prominent Buddhist teachers. At present, only its dome and ground railing with two entrances are still standing. It was nearly destroyed by Captain Johnson who excavated it in 1822. Whatever survived was further destroyed by the excavations of Alexander Cunningham. The stupa has been repaired but has lost many of its features and some of its remains are now placed in the site museum. In addition, there are several smaller stupas scattered all around the site. These smaller stupas were meant for the teachers and disciples. There are several votive stupas scattered all around. It is believed that those devotees whose wishes were fulfilled used to construct votive stupas. Sanchu also houses several monolithic stone pillars. The Ashokan pillar stands near stupa 1. Built of chunar limestone, it has been heavily polished. While the lower part of the pillar stands in situ, its larger parts are placed inside a shed nearby. Its land capital is put on display in the Sanchi museum. The monolithic pillar has an inscription recording Ashoka's warning against a split in the Sangha and threatening excommunication of any monk or nun who attempted to do it. Another important pillar is the Vajrapani pillar which was once surmounted by a figure of Vajrapani which is now lying in the museum. Only the lower portion of the shaft lies near stupa 1. There are also remains of several Buddhist temples. One of them, temple 18, stands on a raised platform. Located in front of the stupa 1, the chaitya was used to impart education to Buddhist monks. The upper portion of the chaitya has got destroyed and only pillars can be seen at the present. The pillars are very high, more than 5 meters. The temple belongs to a very early date and additions were made during different ages of the Mauryan, Shunga and Gupta period. Perhaps it was built by the Mauryans at the same time when the great stupa was built. This temple once had a portico supported on 9 pillars. Nearby, there is another temple, temple 17, consisting of a flat-roofed square sanctum with a portico supported on 4 pillars. Temple 17 is important from the standpoint of the history of temple architecture in India. Presently, there is no image inside but Messi had reported a Buddha image inside the temple during his 19th century exploration. The third temple, temple 31, is also a flat-roofed pillared shrine containing a statue of Buddha with a beautifully carved halo and seated on a lotus flower. The temple is guarded by a Naga deity, a female deity with a multi-hooded snake on the head. Temple 40 was one of the earliest temples at Sanchi, built during the 3rd century BC. The main structure was built of timber and it was destroyed by fire during the 2nd century BC but was soon rebuilt and enlarged. A flight of stairs towards the east of stupa number 1 leads into monastery number 47. Two more monasteries open into the central courtyard although at different levels. Monastery 45 has remains of a temple. Inside the sanctum lies a statue of Buddha in earth-touching posture. Going down the hill takes one to another imposing monastery number 51 where the old quarry has been turned into a tank. Outside the gate is a giant bowl formed by scooping of a large stone boulder which used to serve as foot bowl for the monks. The 22 cells of the monastery are of uniform size. Monastery 51 is the most impressive structure excavated at Sanchi, measuring 105 feet from west to east and 102 feet from north to south. Based on the typical modern brick size, it can be inferred that it was built by Devi. There is a site museum at Sanchi which is opened daily and contains some of the most important antiquities recovered during the excavation. The museum is worth a visit. It was built in 1919 by John Marshall, the then Director General of Archaeological Survey of India. However, as the collections increased, the museum was moved to the new building in 1966. The museum houses the lion capital of Ashokapila. It also houses several other statues of Buddha and Bodhisattvas. Sanchi today is one of the most important tourism and Buddhist pilgrimage destinations in central India. You can easily reach it both by train and bus and a short visit of one day is sufficient to cover the Stupa complex and the museum. If you found value in this video, please give it a thumbs up. If the information provided by the video was useful, please subscribe to the channel for similar videos on Buddhism. We are constantly coming out with new videos on the life of Buddha and Buddhist heritage. Please share your thoughts on Sanchi in the comments below.